Chapter 157: No Other Way
Finally.
Riley felt his body give out, every ounce of strength burning away as the flames died in his veins. Relief settled in, bitter but almost comforting. He had done what he could.
Maybe it was enough. Maybe it wasn’t.
As his knees buckled and the world tilted, he thought he saw the ground split apart. From the corner of his fading vision, a figure burst out of the earth, golden light blazing against the choking dark.
Hallucination? Wishful delusion?
Riley could not tell.
He only knew his chest hurt and his heart was caving in, and as the blackness crept closer, one last thought crossed his mind.
Why are you late, Kael?
And then he was gone, swallowed by unconsciousness.
The figure who had emerged caught him before his body struck stone.
Desperate wrath.
Kael’s face was twisted between a snarl and grief; his jaw was locked so tightly the muscle trembled.
His eyes burned with rage, yet shook at the edges, trembling in a way that betrayed a fear he would never admit aloud. His hands, clawed and unsteady, caught the twig’s falling body with more care than he had ever shown to any living thing.
"Riley! Riley!"
The dragon lord lightly jostled the limp form. He was too light. Even lighter than before. Panic roared in Kael’s chest, though his face remained the mask of a beast, fury masking anguish.
He had known something was wrong when the first wave of pain tore through him. He had dropped everything, searching for survivors and perpetrators alike, and he was driven by urgency, rushing through the dungeon labyrinth with one goal.
Riley.
The first surge had told him danger was near, but when he followed the trail, it led upward, to the same floor where the fifth prince’s mana signature flickered weakly.
Kael had prepared to use projection to contact his aide, but when he felt that Riley was drawing abilities from him, it became clear that the twig was in the middle of a battle. If he used projection, it would be drawing from the same mana that Riley was using to fight.
And that just would not do, so he had to get there faster.
It was supposed to be simple. Yet nothing worked. When he used magic to move forward, he found himself dragged back and forced onto the same floor again. The protective spellwork laced through the structure seemed to be made to resist escape with magic.
Fine.
His lips curled, a growl of annoyance boiling in his throat. But then the next pulse of pain nearly doubled him over. With a sharp click of his tongue, Kael abandoned patience and drove his fist into the sealing wall.
CRAAAASH!
The structure split under brute force.
Water poured through the cracks, flooding down the stairwell in a wave, but Kael did not care. In that instant, he learned what the enemy had not intended him to know. Physical strength could break through their wards.
He used it.
Stone after stone fell before him. He tore through floors, punching, clawing, rending walls apart as though the dungeon itself was a carcass he would rip open to find what was his.
Each time he landed, it was into another prison. Screams greeted him. Hands clung to him. Faces cried out.
But Kael had no time.
He blasted open cells in passing, shattering locks with a single pulse of energy, never slowing as he continued his climb.
And then the pain hit.
It felt like his soul was being ripped out, wrenched apart from within. Anguish cut deeper than claws, dragging him into a place even his fury had never reached.
The normally composed dragon lord saw nothing but red.
When Kael finally reached him, Riley was already falling.
The sight froze him, then shattered something deep within. Every shred of restraint, every thread of composure, broke.
The dragon lord’s fury ignited, surging out in a wave that tore the chamber apart. The perpetrators Riley had already burned to ash were obliterated further, reduced to less than dust, and disintegrated until not even a trace remained.
The air screamed with the force of it.
Kael stood in the ruins, chest heaving, seething so violently that the stone beneath his claws cracked with each pulse of his rage.
And then, through the ringing silence, came the voices.
Tiny voices.
"Please, help!"
"Sir Riley—please, he saved us!"
"Miss Risa is hurt!"
The children.
They huddled together, wide-eyed, trembling. Courage born from desperation pushed them to speak, to beg, even as their bodies shook. They had no idea who Kael was. No idea that the being they were pleading with was more monster than man.
Still, they begged.
Their voices cracked as they screamed for him to help Riley. To help their teacher.
Kael barely heard them at first. Fury drowned out everything. His blood thundered. His vision pulsed with red. He wanted nothing more than to rip apart every stone until the entire prison was gone.
But then a small voice cut through it.
"Sir Riley said... he said to hold out till you came. He said you’d definitely come for him. So we should all survive until then."
The words pierced him.
They echoed, each syllable striking against the haze of rage until his mind finally caught up and interpreted them.
Riley had told them to wait for him.
Riley had trusted him.
And yet he was late.
Kael blinked once. His claws trembled. The fury did not vanish, but it shifted, narrowed, condensed into something sharp.
A shred of sanity returned.
He focused, his chest heaving as he pulled Riley closer against him. The children’s sobs pressed into his ears, and instead of ignoring them, he heard them.
Kael turned his head, golden eyes narrowing as he finally, deliberately looked at them.
Riley apparently told these midgets they’d all get saved.
So if he succeeded, the twig would have no choice but to survive and speak to them again.
Yes. Right. The twig would have to survive.
There was just no other way.